CREATE A TRACER ROUND EFFECT

In typical InCamera fashion, the team blends the practical with the digital to create the tracer bullet effect from scratch

In the preceding shots of our Lancaster taking damage to its engine and wing, we see incoming enemy fire in the form of tracer bullets from an unseen fighter. This creates a visually arresting effect, but faithful to the weapons and ammunition that would have been used at the time.

Tracer rounds are projectiles, or bullets, that have a small pyrotechnic charge in their base. When fired, the charge burns extremely brightly and can be seen by the naked eye, even in daylight. At night or low light, the tracer looks incredibly vibrant. A number of films have featured tracer ammunition being used. The Brad Pitt movie Fury, which follows a tank crew during the Second World War, has a number of scenes where tracer fire is used. On release, some critics suggested the scenes using tracer rounds were more reminiscent of a sci-fi film, as the fired rounds looked more like laser blasts. However the effect portrayed in the film was, in fact, entirely accurate.

These pyrotechnic rounds were usually loaded into a gun belt every fourth or fifth round, and would give the gunner a visible path and destination of the bullets they were firing so they could adjust aim if necessary. They would also be loaded at the end of a magazine or bullet chain to tell the gunner that they would shortly need to reload.

In the scene, our Lancaster comes under fire from an enemy fighter, but to produce something more visually interesting than hits to the wing from unseen bullets, we decided our fighter would be loaded with tracer rounds.